The Consultant
by kazekuro
Summary: Paranormal Romance author Josie James likes to spend her free time investigating paranormal activities, for research purposes of course. So is it really any surprise that she shows up in the thick of the Kira case?


**Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, own Death Note (L would not have died if I did). I do own any OCs and the plot.**

**Summary: Paranormal Romance author Josie James likes to spend her free time investigating paranormal activities, for research purposes of course. So is it really any surprise that she shows up in the thick of the Kira case? Her entrance is a little odd, but authors tend to be like that, odd. Yet that doesn't explain how she knows so much about the case and L in particular?**

**XXX**

**Chapter 1 The Writer and the Detective**

"Gah! Cough. Ugh. Whose bright idea was this anyway?" the muttering young woman paused for a moment, gears turning slowly in her mind, "oh yeah, mine, hehe."

Crawling through hotel air ducts was a lot harder than she initially planned. With her small stature Josie had thought it would be a cinch, no such luck. She hadn't counted on them being so small, for as short as she was Josie had curves. Normally she liked her curves, trim waist, cute bubble butt, and generous C-cups. It was situations like this that really made her rethink that.

_-Flashback_

_Getting through the busy streets of Tokyo was like a midget trying to get to the front of the mosh pit at a Papa Roach concert. Not that she had anything against midgets, she actually felt for them, she had a hard enough time getting by with her 5'3" stature, okay 5'2½", close enough, and she was sure they had a lot more problems to contend with than she did. Still times like these she felt really small, weren't Japanese people supposed to be short? Who on earth came up with that one? Whoever it was had obviously been a giant. _

_Anyway back to the main problem, it wouldn't do her any good to get side tracked; she'd likely get run over that way. Unfortunately for her she had no idea where to go at this point. She really should stop following her impulses and figure out where she was going before actually hopping on a plane to fly halfway around the world to a foreign country where she barely understand the language. Why hadn't she paid more attention to Rosetta Stone? There was nothing to do for it now, though; she was already there, now if only she could get someone to point her in the right direction._

"_Excuse me." Josie skipped over to a young man waiting calmly at a bus stop. "Could you tell me where the Imperial Hotel is?"_

_The man looked up from his phone giving her a confused look. Sighing she rephrased her question, "uno, the Teitou Hotel please." Josie was a little frustrated with the man. Honestly she wasn't that bad at Japanese, she knew she said the words correctly, so what if she had a slight accent? You could still clearly understand what she was asking._

"_Ah, gomen, I was surprised by your accent. If you keep going down this road for about ten blocks then take a right it'll be about six blocks from the police station."_

_Wow, could the man say 'about' any more? She could already tell she was going to get majorly lost. About just wasn't going to cut it, but what could she do? Obviously he didn't know, guess she was going to have to wing it, again._

"_Arigato." _

_Josie smiled kindly at the man and started walking in the direction he had pointed out. Mentally preparing herself for a lot of extra walking. She had the general direction so all that was left was to see how correct the distance was. _

_Luckily for her, Josie had managed to find the police station, the National Police Agency, just as a couple of detectives were leaving. Not so unusual, really, for detectives to be leaving so late, even on New Years Eve. But this group in particular seemed extremely determined, like they had an important place to go to, one that definitely wasn't home._

_Smiling giddily she dropped back from the group, excitement coursing through her as she mentally hummed the mission impossible theme and proceeded to play super spy. The men didn't even notice they had a stalker. They where so intent on looking inconspicuous, they didn't even glance behind them once, much to Josie's disappointment. She probably could have skipped along not five feet behind them and they probably wouldn't notice, but what fun was that? It wasn't everyday she had the opportunity to tail someone._

_-End Flashback_

It was thoughts like that that always seemed to get her in trouble. Just look at where she ended up! The longer she spent in the vents the more depressed she became. Shaking her head Josie moved onto the next opening, hoping that this would be the right room. She was exhausted. Climbing to the top floor via air ducts was not something she would ever do again. It may be worth it in the end but this adventure brought home the fact that she spent the majority of her time sitting in front of her computer at home. Next time she wanted to try and take James Bonds job she'd have to remember to get in shape first.

Her ears perked up as she caught muffled voices coming from the next vent. Josie felt motivated once again as she scuttled quickly to the opening.

"…please always call me Ryuzaki from now on. Both for our safety's sake."

"I just had an idea. If we know that Kira needs to know people's names and faces, then can't we tell the media to omit those from their crime coverage that could limit the number of victims."

Josie leaned in, pressing her ear to the vent to struggling to hear the soft mumbling voice that answered.

"…I'm also childish and hate losing. That's how I know."

"L…No Ryuzaki, could you explain that a little more clearly?"

'_L? Ryuzaki?'_

"That time I used the TV broadcast to challenge him, Kira, who as far as we know had killed only criminals until then, didn't hesitate to kill me…that is the death row inmate he though was me. Then, when I said he was in the Kanto region around Tokyo he started concentrating on Japanese criminals. And by the time he eliminated the FBI agents, he was concentrating on Kanto area criminals…"

'_OMG! This really is L! I can't believe I'm this close to him. I wish I could see him better. Pout. Stupid vent, you couldn't have been a little bigger could you? Or at least at a better angle?'_

Scooting forward Josie tried to find a position to see L's face. Unfortunately for her vents weren't meant to hold any kind of weight. Looking back she supposed the outcome should have been obvious. In what movie does anything go the way the female protagonists way? To be honest having the female lead 'accidentally' fall into the middle of such a scene would be something she would do.

But that was in movies and books, not real life, or so she had thought. Landing in a tangled heap atop of a coffee table said otherwise. "Next time I get the urge to play super spy someone had better smack me."

God she was sore. The force with which she hit the table had caused it to break, which lessened the impact, if only slightly. But now that she was focusing on her injuries they seemed so much worse. Not only would her back be a massive bruise but she could also feel the tiny glass shards imbedded there. Hopefully it wasn't one of those priceless heirloom type tea sets.

"It wasn't."

Josie snapped her attention to the interesting looking young man who sat oddly before her. Had she said that out loud? Well obviously sense he answered. Now that she thought about it, it was apparent he had answered in English. Most likely she had spoken in English, as well. It was her native tongue after all. Thus her thoughts tended to be in English.

"Ha-ha. Konbanwa. Sorry for dropping in like that. Don't mind me." She laughed sheepishly while rubbing the back of her head.

"Who are you?" An older gentleman wearing an out dated pair of glasses demanded. Seriously hadn't anyone told him that look had died out in like the seventies?

"Oh, I'm Josie, nice to meet you."

"I'm Matsuda, pleasure to meet you."

"MATSUDA!" The group of men yelled, all except the one with the messy black hair and awkward posture. He had remained quite except for his response to her randomly spoken thought. It appeared to her that not only was he observing her actions and scrutinizing her every word but, his expressionless eyes, made it seem like he was looking right through you to your very soul.

"How did you get here, Miss Josie?" Mr. Glasses questioned.

"I thought that obvious." Josie smiled pointing up, "I came down from up there."

Glasses-san was not happy with her response and Josie had to bite her tongue lightly to keep from laughing at his expression.

"Josie-san, why were you in the air ducts?" This came from the messy hair guy.

The other men seemed to look to this guy for directives. That seemed odd to her, looking at the group one would think that the older one with glasses was in charge. Josie had been around enough people in authority to recognize that the five in suits were with the police. It also helped that she followed two of them here. But this guy didn't seem to fit with the rest of them. There was something about him that set him apart. Maybe it was his casual attire, or the dark bags under his eyes, but it was the fact that his appearance was not something she had expected that settled the matter. That alone told her without out doubt whom this man was.

"You're L." She stated firmly.

"Ha-how did you know that?"

"Simple Matsu. Your reaction told me." She paused to allow that to sink in. "That and the fact that I was able to overhear some of your conversation. It was a little challenging as the vent muffled your voices, but I was able to catch that L or Ryuzaki was asked to explain his reasoning and you all seemed to focus your attention on him. So it was an obvious deduction." Josie then turned her attention back to L. "As for your question. I thought I would be fun to continue playing spy as they," she jabbed her thumb at the officers, "weren't any fun. Seriously if your going to have a secret meaning you should at least make sure your not followed. They didn't even look behind them once. They were too focused on trying to 'blend' in and act nonchalant that they were stiff and tense. You could see them forcing themselves not to look behind them every few seconds. Rather pathetic if you ask me."

"HEY!" Was the collective uproar from the pea section.

"I'm just saying…" a hint of northern drawl came out making Josie cringe inwardly.

"Josie-san, why is it you came here?" She knew what he was asking her. There was no way the worlds greatest detective wouldn't catch that slip. The question was what to tell him and how much.

"Well I came to help with the investigation of course."


End file.
